Ally's girlfriend has dumped her and she's heading home to Sheffield, taking the cat with her.
Moving back home to dad's and hooking up with an old friend, Jeremy, she finds herself agreeing to run a half marathon. Two unfit new runners in training make for some comedy moments and these are interspersed with broken hearts, potential new romances and lots of cake!
Not the typical predictable comedy romance storyline but close enough to be hugely enjoyable and a great read. I loved it!

I quite enjoyed this quick easy read. The two main characters were, for the most part, very likeable and you couldn’t help rooting for them - especially when they were actually running the half marathon. I felt that Jo’s character could have had more development, and I would quite have liked to hear more about Ally’s dad and Liz. But all in all I enjoyed this. I would probably read more by the author. 3.5 stars.

A very heart warming story.
Ally`s relationship to Emily suddenly ends so she returns home to her dad with their cat.
Jeremy her old school friend gets in touch after his relationship to Ben ended and he also returned to his family.
They take up jogging to enter a half marathon hoping to impress their exes.

The journey they take is hilarious and at times you want to either slap them and tell them to move on in life, or cuddle them as the characters are so loveable.

A story of how people who change to accommodate who they are in love with and why they should always be themselves.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review

There was a lot about The Split that I found myself really enjoying. To start with, I loved how easy it was to read and follow. Although the storyline was about a classic breakup between two people, what I really liked was the way Kay formed together those really raw and real emotions that come with being broken up with, and that fantasy idea that you'll get back together and live happily ever after.

I really liked that, very much like Ghosts by Dolly Alderton or The Switch by Beth O'Leary, you got to see a real powerful rise in the main character. Their lives turned around and felt very inspirational!
Not only that but it's nice to read a book that gives you that "I'm not alone" feeling that we all need from time to time.

I appreciated that The Split was funny and heartwarming in parts but sad in others - a nice equal balance!

If I had to pick on two minor things, I would've liked more rounding of some of characters, I felt like Jo had so much more potential. Also I felt as though someparts were a little predictable but that sometimes can't be helped in the nature of stories like this.

Overall a recommendation if you liked The Switch by Beth O'Leary!

Easy quick read, good to see lesbian relationships in main stream rom com books. Didn’t love it, didn’t hate it.
One part of the book did bug me was a part at the beginning saying their families become friends as Ally and Jeremy got married. There was also a reference in an email to Emily about marrying Jeremy, then that was it nothing about it again. What was that about??

TW: cheating, alcohol use

Thank you Quercus Books for allowing me to read an eARC of The Split! All views and opinions discussed here are my own.

MY REVIEW DOES CONTAIN SOME SPOILERS FOR EVENTS IN THE BOOK SO BE MINDFUL WHEN READING.

I so wanted to love this book, having seen lots of rave reviews for it and honestly I just love the brightness of the cover. And I mostly did love this book, probably until around 60% in where it just took a nose dive for me and never quite made it's way back up. I liked the concept of this book and the fact that Ally took the cat - it's definitely the petty kind of thing i'd do. I really enjoyed the first half of the book; watching Ally build that relationship back up with her old friend Jeremy and watching her and her dad potter along next to each other. Even her exploration into the world of running was written in an interesting and engaging way that definitely had me hooked.

I wish the whole book just focused on this; Ally and Jeremy finding themselves and who they are after difficult break ups that have gutted their world. I love how we saw them develop and engage with each other, realising the mistakes they made and the mistakes that were done to them. I also enjoyed the initial relationship that we observed between Ally and Jo; I thought this could become a nice friendship if not a romance. I think if the whole book had been about this it would have been so much better.

Unfortunately for me the book just carried on and the character of Ally just became slightly unlikeable; her emails to Emily were difficult to read because they were cringey (also there was definitely formatting issues in my copy cos sentences would just cut off part way through). I felt that Ally was the typical "not like other girls" caricature that i've come to hate in books and her treatment of Jo was difficult to stomach. She knows Jo likes her but is very clearly just using her to annoy her ex - it was difficult to understand what Jo saw in Ally at this point. I'm glad that Jo didn't forgive her straight away for her actions although it's implied that by the end of the book something might happen between them. Emily was definitely a terrible character and i'm so glad they didn't end up together.

The romance side of the book just really let it down for me; what could have been a brilliant contemporary book about finding and building yourself back up after a sudden break-up just became a difficult to read subpar romance book.

I will say though that there is an immense amount of LGBT positive representation without sexuality ever being an issue in terms of romances or friendships, which I did think was positive.

I wanted to love this one but it just didn't quite work for me.

This is a great book, very well written and so compelling! Friendship is one of the main topics along with break ups and how difficult relations can be!

The main character Ally see her life completely altered when her girlfriend decides to break up with her without even blinking... As a result, Ally is left heartbroken, jobless and without a home so she decides to take the cat !

Staying with her father until she gets her life sorted, Ally gets back in touch with her childhood friend Jeremy that will be become her biggest supporter although he is fighting with depression himself. This component of caring for others and really making sure that no one is left behind is one of my favourite parts of the book.

The author wrote about so many of very important questions and topics that affects us all in our daily lives in a very eloquent and honest way, that made me enjoy reading this book even more.

Thank you so much to Milly from Quercus books for the advanced ebook copy via netgalley in exchange for a honest review.

I really enjoyed this book and will defiantly be reading more from the author.

This book tells the Story of Ally who has split up with her girlfriend and takes the cat and moves back to Sheffield to live with her dad.

What follows without giving any spoilers away is amazing story of adventure, friendship and more.

I loved this book and all the different characters esp the cat as I am a cat lover.

With thanks to Netgalley & Quercus for the arc of this book in exchange for this honest review.

The Split is a book in which very little happens and I thought it was kind of bad.
My main issues are threefold: the main character, the pacing, and the fact that this book could have easily been 100 pages less.
Firstly, I felt that Ally's personality was very inconsistent and messy throughout the story, she was given too many different tones and traits - it felt like when you mix lots of different cereals together and it ends up just tasting like sugar, not the individual flavours. After finishing the book I still have no idea how I would describe Ally or be able to picture how she sees the world. Her voice was bland and confusing and it was hard to stay engaged in the parts with less dialogue from the other characters.
Secondly, I didn't like the way in which this story was paced. I read this book in a week and it felt like I had been reading it for 756 years. Aside from the first 10%, this book was so excruciatingly slow. Combined with the fact that nothing really happens and the character's voice is as compelling as a wooden spoon, it felt even slower. This brings me to my next point...the length (kind of).
This book is 350 pages of Ally milling around. It's also 350 pages of almost every sentence being three times longer than necessary. At times it read like a uni essay that was orginally too short and edited to reach a higher word count. The dragging sentences and the unnecessary observations made by the MC made this book way too long than it needed to be. I think if this book was closer to 250 pages, it would have improved the pace and intrigue significantly.
The things I like about The Split are twofold: the dad, he reminded me of my dad. His character felt warm and I thought his dialogue was spot on. Also Malcolm. He was iconic. And secondly the portrayal of a wonderful queer found family, however brief it was.
1 star for Dad and cat, 1 star for lovely lesbians.

Thank you ever so much to the publisher for this e-arc!

This is just so heartwarming and lovely. There are many moments that made me laugh out loud, and I was very nearly brought to tears. I am struggling to put in to words how much I loved this book.
What I liked
The characters. I loved them. In particular, Malcolm. I loved the little guy and his grump.
Ally's dad just seems like such a wonderful human, he is so supportive and nice. The owners of the bakery are just so cute and I want to work for them too. Ally's experience is completely relatable and it is so easy to identify with her character, even when you don't like what she is doing. Jeremy and Ally's friendship and how it develops is just so cute and I am envious of the relationship they have.
At the end of a few of the chapters, there is an email exchange between Ally and Emily, which just adds a little humour and breaks up the text in a really nice way.
What I didn't like
Initially, Ally was so whiney and annoying. I get that she has just been broken up with and that's not great, but was there any need for her to be so bleh?! Other than this, I have no issues with this book at all.
I am very excited to read other work by this author, as I really enjoyed the writing style and flow of the book.

Wounded and betrayed, after being dumped by her girlfriend, Ally makes off to her dad’s in Sheffield with the one thing that might soothe the pain and force her ex to speak to her again: Emily's cat, Malcolm. Back home and forced into a 'date' by their parents, Ally and her first-ever beard, Jeremy, come up with a ridiculous plan to win their exes back... to revenge-run a half marathon. Given neither of them can run, they enlist the support of athletic, not to mention beautiful, Jo.

This is a laugh out loud, easy read. If you need to escape the world around us, this is the book to do so. This is the perfect book for the beach or around the pool or even with a nice glass of wine while in the bath. This is a first for me by the author and one I enjoyed and would read more of their work. The book cover is eye-catching and appealing and would spark my interest if in a bookshop. Thank you very much to the author, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

3.5/5.

Ally is suddenly dumped by her long term partner, Emily. With nowhere else to go she goes home to her dad in Sheffield, taking with her Emily's cat. Emily will have to pursue her to get the cat back - right? She meets up with an old schoolfriend,Jeremy, also recently been dumped by his partner. Can the 2 of them help each other get over the split? Enjoyable reading,sad in places, funny in places, well worth reading.

Humorous, Healing, and Full of Heart

It's incredibly difficult not to get drawn into a book when the strapline is "Ally's relationship is over, and she's taking the cat!"
Let's face it, how many of us have had horrendous, heartbreaking, soul-destroying breakups and given into the temptation of acting like a petty, revengeful teenager? Well, if you have, this book will resonate with you; but deep down, it's so much more than that. The Split, by Laura Kay, is a refreshingly different take on how to heal a broken heart.

Blurb:
Brutally dumped by her girlfriend, Ally is homeless, friendless, and jobless...but at least she has Malcolm. Wounded and betrayed, Ally has made off with the one thing she thinks might soothe the pain: Emily's cat.
After a long train journey, she arrives home to her dad in Sheffield, ready to fold herself up in her duvet and remain on the sofa for the foreseeable. Her dad has other ideas. A phone call later, and Ally is reunited with her first-ever beard and friend of old, Jeremy. He too is broken-hearted and living at home again.
In an inspired effort to hold each other up, the pair decide to sign up for the local half marathon in a bid to impress their exes with their commitment and athleticism.
Given neither of them can run, they enlist the support of athletic, not to mention beautiful Jo. But will she have them running for the hills...or will their ridiculous plan pay off?

Ally didn't see it coming. Not at all. If she had, maybe she wouldn't have quit her job, but then, being miserable in a job and getting dumped by the woman you love may well have been worse. But still, now Ally finds herself jobless, homeless, and heartbroken. But she won't be leaving her life in London behind without taking something with her. The cat. Malcolm.

We've all done it, haven't we? Done or said something to upset someone, taken revenge, but Ally hopes that taking the cat with her back to her father's home in Sheffield might give her a bargaining chip to get Emily back. Or, at the very least give her company as she hides under the duvet back in her childhood home.

But Ally's dad has other ideas. He is not ready for Ally to give up and suggests she meets up with her old childhood friend, Jeremy. Poor Jeremy is also back living with the parents after breaking up with his boyfriend. Although the pair were thrown together as teenagers due to their parents' friendship, as adults, they are about to discover they have much more in common than they first thought, and a broken heart is just the start.

As Ally and Jeremy decide to run the local half marathon together (in a terrible attempt to impress their ex-partners) hilarity ensues.

The Split, by Laura Kay, is an incredibly touching, funny, and endearing story about healing from a broken heart. These gorgeously well-rounded and beautifully drawn characters pull you in and keep you captive. The humour is delicately placed and the heartbreak is real.

The Split is that beautiful RomCom that I would have loved to have read in my teens/twenties... a book that gives you hope that love isn't dead and that heartbreak isn't permanent.

I debated whether I should highlight the LGBTQ+ angle of this book, and flip-flopped from one side to the other (because in this day and age, it shouldn't even be something we need to discuss when talking about romance books) but I landed on the decision that actually it is a very important aspect of this book. Not because it 'helps highlight issues' - but because this is one of those incredible novels that leave you feeling 'seen' no matter who you are. It leaves you feeling as if you relate to the characters and connect with their heartbreak because when it comes to matters of the heart, it doesn't matter if you are lesbian, gay, bi or straight - heartbreak is heartbreak no matter who you love. We all need time to heal. Many of us turn to friends to pick us up and reach for comfort food to fill the void, and many of us find ways to try and get their attention again. It doesn't matter who you are, I defy you to read this book and not feel connected to these characters in some way. To watch these two friends navigate their new lives together is a joy and offers hope to all those who have lost love.

The Split is charming, it's funny, it's full of love, and pain, and healing.

So, next time you come home from a bad date or want to drown yourself in ice-cream while watching Bridget Jones's Diary on repeat - put the remote down and pick up The Split and wait for your pain to find a home and your heart find a soul mate.

A fabulous book, one that will long reside in my heart.

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review – thanks so much to Netgalley for sending this to me!

The Split is advertised as an adult version of Louise Rennison’s Georgia Nicholson series, a story of a woman who is dumped by her long-term girlfriend, tries to win her back by going on a journey of self-improvement, and finds love, family and friendship along the way.

This book is well-written, fairly quick to get through, and a pleasant enough reading experience, but unfortunately it failed to get me invested beyond a surface-level. None of the characters really clicked – except for Jeremy; I would die for Jeremy, bless him – and I found the plot pretty bland. Ally is one of those characters who feels specifically designed to be #relatable – she’s bad at everything, makes constant quirky jokes about food and wine and being bad at exercise, and a lot of her behaviour made me cringe, particularly the rambling emails she sends to her ex. Think of a lesbian Bridget Jones, but only mildly funny and a lot less charming. I found her difficult to root for, and I was never really invested in any of her relationships, and the way she treats her secondary love interest honestly really bothered me. (As a side-note, I feel like the blurb makes this book seem a lot more romance-focused than it is – if you’re reading for the romance, don’t, because you’ll be left hugely unsatisfied.) I was very much turning pages just to get through it, and while it was never bad enough to get me to DNF, I didn’t feel compelled to pick it up at any point, nor do I think anything about this book is going to stick with me.

The book is well-crafted, sweet and uplifting, but all in all, about as interesting as a fairy cake without any icing on it. I feel bad for giving it such a low rating – I usually save my 2s for books that are genuinely badly written or constructed – but based on my complete apathy towards everything that happened, I’m going to have to give it a 2.75.

I received an ARC from NetGalley and Quercus in exchange for an honest review. I have given The Split by Laura Kay five out of five stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Split was a fun, heart-warming, laugh out loud book which I desperately want to re-visit again and again in the months to come! We follow our main character, Ally, who is trying to re-build her life after her girlfriend breaks up with her. Ally goes back to her Sheffield roots to move in with her dad to start afresh… but she has taken Emily’s cat, Malcolm. Desperate to win Emily back by using Malcolm as a bargaining chip for her to travel up to Sheffield to retrieve Malcolm, but really Ally is hoping that Emily will come up to Sheffield and realise that she made a mistake for breaking up with her and want her back.

I absolutely adored Ally’s character, she was so much fun, witty and completely hilarious. Ally, like all humans, makes mistakes in her life which I felt made her character realistic and made it very easy to connect with her. I thought the secondary LGBTQ+ characters were well-developed, especially Ally’s childhood friend; Jeremy who was a complete bundle of joy and a great friend to lean on when times were difficult. I must confess my love for Charlie and Sophie too, they were completely loveable and wonderful people who I grew fond of very quickly after being introduced to them.

Once Ally and Jeremy sign up for the half marathon, a sense of warm, proud memories flooded over me as I have participated in three half marathons and the descriptive writing of their training, the feelings and experiences Ally and Jeremy go through when taking part in their half marathon brought back such vivid memories. I loved this part of the story so much.

One passage I particularly loved and brought back fond memories from when I was in secondary school was: “volunteering to play ‘deep fielder’ in rounders so I could chat to my mates, occasionally raise an arm to wave in the ball’s general direction and then make a disappointed face when I missed it.” I was definitely one of those students at school who did this on a fair few occasions and when I read this part of the book I found myself having a little giggle to myself thinking back to those P.E. sessions at school.

A superbly written story which I thoroughly enjoyed and cannot believe that this is Laura Kay’s debut novel! Kay’s descriptive writing helped create an incredibly vivid picture in my head throughout reading this humorous and heart-warming story. I am very excited to read more of Kay’s material in the future! I would definitely recommend readers who enjoy laugh out loud romantic comedies and heart-warming stories then this book is right up your ally (haha, see what I did there..? ally… the main character’s name is Ally).

The Split by Laura Kay has been published today on eBook and it will be available in hardback from 18th March 2021. I would definitely recommend checking this book out and I really hope you enjoy it as much as I have!

The Split explores the ups and downs of what it’s like to fall out of love; the grief, the bewilderment, the heartache and the strength (and everything else in between and beyond each of those)

Ally and Emily seem to have it all, except one of them feels there’s something missing (and she’s called Sara ... without the H) The Split takes you through the physical divide of having to move out, the emotional ache of a breaking heart, the practicalities of the financial fallout and the gradual process of bringing the fragments of yourself back together ... all through Ally’s eyes, and, more importantly, her heart.

This was such an easy read and I enjoyed how the characters weren’t overly complex or bogged down with a huge backstory. I loved that Jo knew her own mind and had clear standards, how Ally finds her feet with *the* most supportive colleagues and how Jeremy was such a loyal friend, despite his own relationship woes.

I definitely picked up similar vibes to The FlatShare or Sugar Rush (back in the day) - light hearted heart ache, with some face palm moments and generally a bit frothy but with characters that are likeable enough that you are willing them towards their Happily Ever After.

The split by Laura Kay is a fun lesbian romance novel. A light-hearted take on a breakup of an 8 year relationship where Ally walks out of Emily’s houseboat after Emily dumped her. She returns to her childhood home where her father and childhood friend Jeremy look after her and Malcolm, the cat. The recovery from a depressing spiral comes in the shape of a half marathon that Ally and Jeremy enter, with 2 months to train the plot follows the path to the finish line.
The characters are young, fun and gay, I’m not convinced that Ally is believable as a 29 year old, more like 22 (I don’t know if this is due to me be 39!) She has both a high metabolism and a lack of responsibility that I lost way before 29! The plot is a very simple love story, heart break and romance, I did enjoy the running theme and the chapter of the half marathon race was absolutely spot on, well worth reading for that alone!
Overall an easy romance read for those interested in running or lesbian’s. 3.5*
Thanks to NetGalley and Quercus for the ARC.

There are very few things I love more than a cute romance and despite the title of this one, the halved strawberry suggested to me that there was some hidden sweetness amongst the heartbreak.

Ally has just been dumped by the love of her life, Emily. While Emily has seamlessly moved on with Sara without an H back in London, Ally has retreated back to her dad’s house in Sheffield and she has taken Malcolm, the cat with her. As Ally and Emily converse via e-mail about who is responsible for bringing Malcolm back home, Ally becomes determined to make Emily jealous in a bid to win her girlfriend back. But will she realise that actually there’s more to life than Emily.

Through their e-mails, Ally reminisces about the early days of her relationship with Emily. I could imagine a young girl falling in love for the first time and idolising every tiny thing about her crush. These scenes were so beautifully written, told in a way that only someone who never forgets anything could tell it. One of Ally’s downfalls is her habit of putting her lovers on a pedestal and that’s clearly what happened between her and Emily. In fact, this whole book is a lesson against doing exactly this.

Ally’s mother died years before and she and her dad still very much feel her loss. However, the bond between Ally and her father is so lovely to watch. Despite the fact that they lived at opposite ends of the country for years, they are still so close and seem to effortlessly fall back into a routine when Ally returns. Ally feels so safe and accepted in the house that she grew up in and it’s because of this that she is able to rebuild her life in Sheffield.

I loved the way that mental health was depicted in this book. Ally’s childhood friend Jeremy is also living at home again after losing his job and breaking up with his boyfriend. He’s clearly suffering from depression or perhaps bipolar disorder and has done for some time. The unstable nature of depression is displayed so accurately through his highs of ambition and determination and his silent, distraught lows where he can barely leave his room. Ally and Jeremy’s friendship was definitely my favourite part of the novel (apart from Malcolm’s general existence) and I could easily read a whole series following their adventures. They seem to counter out each other’s bad parts and push each other to take on the ultimate challenge -which they do, together.

There are some really lovely romantic parts of the book too. Towards the end, Ally’s emotions are put to the test and I was so proud of the way she handled it. I was worried that she’d fall back into old habits and take the path that I knew wasn’t right for her. She grew so much over the course of the narrative and I breathed a sigh of relief on finishing the book.

The Split is an uplifting, adorable celebration of friendship, cake, cats and new beginnings. It’s full of wisdom and heart with flawed, believable characters who jumped off the page. Despite this being very much a story about the complexities of what it is to be a human with feelings, Malcolm the cat is the stand-out star of the show, adding a gorgeous fluffy edge to the whole affair!

This is a fab 'snuggle down with a pot of tea and a few huge slices of calorie-laden cake book'.

A witty, and well-written book about the joys, trials and mis-haps of Ally. A girl who has left her long-term girlfriend, with whom she shared a houseboat in London. She moved up north to live back with her dad (an adorable character) and took the girl's cat, Malcolm, with her.

We see her spark up an old high-school friendship with Jeremy, who is also going through separation pains after his break-up with his boyfriend. Supporting each other with trips more than a few glasses of wine, bravado takes them into a new hobby. Would that hobby that new hobby bring the outcome they had both started off seeking?

A lovely book with new characters to spring new avenues to explore and plenty of giggles throughout but enough depth to really understand everyone involved; where they have been and their aims for time ahead. The perfect read for days on the beach or days by the fireplace. I could see a sequel coming from this and indeed a following of both the characters and the author. I would certainly recommend it for adults and even older teens. Don't be surprised if this makes a delightful movie in a few years!

I found this book quite hard going. The author seemed to be trying to hard. . It was almost a box ticking exercise and on the way seemed to lose the plot . The book is messy , jumping from one thing to another
A lot of people seem to have enjoyed it so I would say try it and see
Some moments in the book were extremely funny and enjoyable, other parts sad
Not one I would read again
Thanks to Netgalley, Quercus and Laura for letting me read this book, I’m sorry I didn’t enjoy it